Reviews

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Review

Vocal Pleasure

Jonathan Rhodes Lee - March 11, 2008
Parler à son plaisir, veiller et dormir, Crouer à plaisir, ou autrement va-t-en mourir.
(Speaking of pleasure, waking and sleeping, Feast on pleasure, or otherwise we shall die.)
These words end Clément Janequin's Song of the Lark, which was performed by the all-male vocal group Clerestory on Sunday.

Musical Mixing Pot

Jessica Balik - March 11, 2008
In his poem "The Soup," U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic concocted a mordant, macabre "soup of the world." Cockroaches, dirty feet, Stalin's moustache, Hiroshima, and bloody sausages number among the incendiary images in the poem. Can you even dare imagine musical analogs for them? The Bay Area composer Alden Jenks attempted to do precisely that.

Smaller, But No Less Passionate

Joseph Sargent - March 11, 2008
With Easter just around the corner, the timing seems about right for a performance of a passion by J.S. Bach, one of the genre’s great masters. But while Bach’s St. Matthew Passion might spring immediately to mind, the San Francisco Bach Choir opted for the shorter, less grandiose Johannes-Passion. Too often overshadowed by its more famous cousin, the St.
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Review

Baroque to Borikén

Michael Katz - March 11, 2008
It's hard to dislike the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra's stated mission of "bring[ing] the immediacy and intimacy of music for small orchestra and chamber ensemble to audiences of all ages." It's even harder to dislike its motto of "fresh, fun, first-class, and free" — talk that they walk by presenting professional-caliber concerts at an admission charge of $0.
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Review

One Hell of a Funny Opera

Janos Gereben - March 11, 2008
When Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld was first performed in Paris, in 1858, the famed critic Jules Noriac, of mighty Le Figaro, stammered with delight: "Unheard-of. Splendid. Outrageous. Graceful. Charming. Witty. Amusing. Successful.

Striking Contrasts

Jeff Dunn - March 4, 2008
When does 180 miles equal light-years? When you hear Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony and Shostakovich’s Ninth on the same concert, and realize that the composers’ hometowns (Järvenpää and Leningrad) are that far apart from each other. The symphonies are profound, and profoundly different.
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Review

Winning Ways

Michelle Dulak Thomson - March 4, 2008
Viewed against the more robust concert scenes in San Francisco, the East Bay, and the Peninsula, the classical-music pickings in Marin County can seem slender.

An Ayre of Magic

Anna Carol Dudley - March 4, 2008
Dawn Upshaw flew in with eighth blackbird to sing a concert Saturday night in Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. The eighth blackbird sextet and six equally remarkable players formed the Orquesta Los Pelegrinos, which joined Upshaw in a stunning performance of Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre. The 11 songs comprising Ayre (air/song) form a rich stew of languages and musical styles.
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Review

An Oratorio Lit From Within

Edward Ortiz - March 4, 2008
There is something both intimate and grand about Edward Elgar’s not-oft-performed oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. Perhaps, it’s the challenge of reconciling those dissimilarities that makes this work, written in 1899-1900, a rarity.
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Review

Restorative Pianism

Jerry Kuderna - March 4, 2008

Yundi Li presented a recital of tried and true audience favorites at Herbst Theatre on Sunday, under the auspices of San Francisco Performances. Some of them he has played here before. I went to the theater hoping to gain some insight into the artistic imagination of this acclaimed young artist. I left dazzled, puzzled, and wishing for more substance along with the pyrotechnics that these days seem to be the measure of all things pianistic.